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Leo Varadkar’s First Day On The Job

Leo Varadkar has been formally elected as Ireland’s newest taoiseach (prime minister), becoming the first ever gay leader of the country and the youngest person to hold the office.”I’ve been elected to lead but I promise to serve”, the 38-year-old said.The Fine Gael TD is switching from Foreign Affairs to Justice Minister, as part of new Taoiseach Leo Varadkar’s reshuffle.He went to Aras a Uachtarain (official residence of the Irish president) to receive his seal of office from President Michael D Higgins.”Irish politicians were among the last sectors of our society to come out of the closet but now at least we’ve got one gay man and a lesbian, Catherine Zappone, both in the cabinet”.When Varadkar announced his bid for leadership of Fine Gael, McHugh said he believed Minister Varadkar would be an outstanding leader of the country who understood issues affecting people right across the State and in particular Donegal.One of Mr Varadkar’s first official contacts as leader will be with Mrs May to pass on the sympathies of the Irish people following the London tower block fire.Mr Kenny, who resigned as Taoiseach on Tuesday, nominated Mr Varadkar as his successor ahead of a vote later in the Irish parliament, the Dail.Yesterday was a long one for Varadkar who was elected Ireland’s youngest and first openly gay Taoiseach.Mr Varadkar will meet the leaders of the Democratic Unionist Party and Sinn Fein in Dublin on Friday. During when Ireland became the first country to legalise same-sex marriage in a referendum.Abortion is still illegal for women in Ireland. “It doesn’t define me”, he said at the time.Burton said she finds the demotion of just one woman “a rather unusual decision”.He has pledged to introduce a less ambitious debt reduction target than the one set by Kenny’s government a year ago and lobby the European Union for additional leeway to free up more funding for badly needed infrastructure projects.Varadkar, the former health, tourism and social protection minister, will, however, face scrutiny of his policies at home with opponents warning that he would nudge the party further to the right.